Mostly event announcements, news, and bicycle related activist opinions... Download Critical Mass flyers and posters, or upload your own Email vancouvercm~AT~gmail~DOT~com for a posting password Yes, we ride the last Friday of every month!

27.10.11

Halloween Occupy Vancouver Critical Mass Ride and Roll

Friday, October 28

This is one of the most fun rides of the year!

Hallowe'en and Occupy Vancouver [mic check!] theme this month. Also, hey, it's the City Election which does matter, so you'll probably meet some prospective city officials :-) Bikes are a very hot issue this time around...

Join fellow bicyclists, skaters, and bladers for this leisurely and spirited celebratory ride and roll through the streets of Vancouver! Meet at the Vancouver Art Gallery on the Georgia Street side between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. -- and roll and ride at 6:00 p.m. The ride is on rain or shine! Costumes and decorated bicycles, trailers, signs, flags, noisemakers, gettoblasters, sound systems, drums, and wildly modified bicycles are all highly encouraged!

Celebrated around the world, Critical Mass is a grassroots reclamation of public space -- on the last Friday of the month -- which allows cyclists and other self-propelled people to move safely and comfortably through city streets in a car-free space. Non-polluting forms of transportation are promoted.

The ride stays together for safety and fun. If you are at the front of the ride, stop if you are approaching a red light. But continue as a group if the lights change red while passing though an intersection.

You will see participants at the front peel off to block motorized traffic from entering the Mass. That's called "corking". Corkers keep the ride safe and allow the Mass to pass though intersections where the lights have turned red. Thank them for corking!

Never cork alone. Join lone corkers, and for intersections there should be six or more corkers. And remember, do not cork oncoming traffic in opposing lanes.

If you're at the front, please don't speed or take narrow roadways or paths. It stretches the ride out and makes life harder for corkers, riders, and those waiting for the Mass to pass. Be aware of the ride's slower participants, and keep a slower pace. If the Mass has thinned out or has broken into more than one group, which happens following hills or where the street has becomes more lanes, the front should wait at green lights for the group to "mass up".

Don't stay on any given street for very long, so that public transit can pass. And always let emergency vehicles through. Please don't ride on sidewalks or in opposing traffic lanes.

The ride is a celebration, and an alcohol/drug free event. Take absolute responsibility for your actions and show motorists a better way to travel. A way which is more equitable, efficient, fun and socially responsible than the car. There's no need to be unfriendly or argue with motorists -- our sheer numbers tell the story. Look after each other, speak up, and ride with confidence.

Who decides where we go?

You do! Some rides have a destination that may be suggested at the start of the ride, but the route is always decided by the riders in the front. If you have an idea where the ride should go, move to the front and participate with others in a group decision. Remember to make it fun and interesting, and that Critical Mass has no leaders.

A special note to those at the front: It becomes unsafe for those in the rear if the Mass strrrreeeetches out, there are big gaps, or the body of the Mass looses it's tail. If the front can no longer see the rear, or the Mass has just passed through a "choke point" -- stop at an intersection where there's room for the entire Mass to completely bunch up again (and where the front of the ride can see the rear again).

Witches, Warlocks and all other halloween critters our time is almost here. Friday August 28th the festivities of Halloween begin. Enter the realm of the the infamous and oh so delightfully sinful 3rd annual witches and warlocks cauldron ball. Burlesque, DJ's, Sin, Bands and dancing on one of the few wood sprung dance floors in Vancouver.

Dress code: Witches, Warlocks, Incubuses and all other Halloween critters. or if you want you can come dressed as food (anybody not in costume)

---Also see the twit feed---Occupy Wall Street has turned into a Global Movement that is now spreading to Vancouver. Last week there was a small gathering at the Art Gallery and this week there is a protest that aims to be patient, and long term continuing.

Saturday, October 15th,2011 Vancouver Art GalleryOccupy Vancouver - A Non Violent Movement for Social, Economic and Political Changefor more details follow the link

It's quite breathtaking how radical and quick this is moving. There is lots of room for local leadership and growth. This is a globalised movement in solidarity but it will be local in direction and aims to universally appeal to "the 99%." Come out today!

As cyclists and pedestrian users of the street we have keen insights to add to this movement as we have a much more accurate perception of the role that public space has and how the globalised phenomenon of car culture cuts off people's public social connection to their city.

5.10.11

Special film in the Vancouver International Film Festival plays Thursday

The 30th Annual Vancouver International Film Festival includes adocumentary called On The Line, a fully human powered journey frombeginning to end of the proposed Enbridge Tar Sands pipeline toKitimat and into 250 Supertankers per year.

Frank Wolf and Todd McGowan have made an insightful film that simplyshows where and who will be affected by this insane plan to make a fewrich people richer.

What impressed me is how they did this. First riding bikes (that theythen gave away!) for over a 1000km, then when pavement and gravel cometo an end, they convert to hikers and traverse through pristinewilderness over the Rocky Mountains. When riding becomes an optionagain, they somehow travel over seriously dangerous logging roadsuntil rafting and kayaking are the only options to get to point wherethe bitumen would be loaded onto supertankers.

Not only do they show the incredible beauty of the land and all thatdepends on it along the path of the proposed pipeline, they bringcountless stories of the humans who will be affected into the film.One fact, that 37 jobs will be created by the pipeline while 56,000people currently make their living from fishing in the area, wasshocking to me.

Not surprising was the fact that the Environmental Review Panelevaluating this pipeline is set up to approve it at all costs. That aMember of Parliament so plainly stated this fact on film wasstartling, to say the least.

I'm quite certain that anyone on the fence about this Northern GatewayPipeline Project proposed by Enbridge (who declines their invitationto speak) will simply not be able to sit comfortably anymore afterseeing this self-propelled film.

Parenting with an Open Heart: a seminar series for all Parents,Caregivers, and Parents-to-be: for info and session dates, pleasevisit http://humanpowered.wordpress.com

Movie and Theatre lovers who know a saner world is possible mayenjoying reading and sharing their thoughts on Reel Life, Real Ideas:Movies and more...

Adam Smith, godfather of modern economics stated: "Civilgovernment...is in reality instituted for the defence of the richagainst the poor, of those who have some property against those whohave none at all."

By regularly riding through red lights and stop signs (after yieldingto make sure it's safe for all), we can encourage the powers-that-beto modernize their rules (e.g., in Idaho)...we are NOTone-tonne-killing-machines!

Hit by a car at 60 km/h (40mph), a pedestrian has an 85 per centchance of being killed; at 50 km/h (30mph) s/he has a 45 per centchance of being killed, while at 30 km/h (20mph) the risk falls to 5per cent. Source: British Parliamentary Advisory Council on TransportSafety (1996) Taking Action on Speeding

If you are expecting a baby soon......read Ina May Gaskin's insightful book, Ina May's Guide toChildbirth, packed full of birth stories and her experience of helpingdeliver over 2,000 babies!...consider Natural Infant Hygiene (aka Elimination Communication) andreduce the expense of diapers (and much more)...check outhttp://www.diaperless.org and http://www.natural-wisdom.com

Did you know that in Scandinavia...--> there are laws protecting children from all forms of spanking andbullying, even from parents--> these laws do not imprison or punish parents but instead raiseawareness (http://www.empathicparenting.org)--> the elderly are able to remain at home thanks to programs thatprovide free meals, free transportation, and free care